Evolving Your Interactive Business

Back in the late eighties and early 90’s, every publisher considered migrating to the web. Some edged forward, albeit at turtle speed, and actually registered a domain name. A few started to create a “home page” so their publications could have a presence. How about hte most aggressive step forward? A single webpage. Yes, your domain name was not your actual company but rather your flagship product. It had little other than your magazine and book covers, if you remember, that took forever to load.


But the remaining majority, and admit it you were one of them, sat on your hands and watched the clock ticking.


And while you sat there, (no doubt focused on your telemarketing efforts), the world around you changed- rapidly. For those of you still standing still; it’s not too late to wake up and embrace the internet and interactive digital media. We are a lot smarter and more strategic we were during the birth of online and have evolved into greater risk takers. Why? Because we understand that in today’s market our survial depends on it. You can not stay competitive any other way.



I’ll bet lots of CEO’s, COO’s are now golfing with the CIO’s and CTO’s. I’d also wager they invite them to sales meetings and steering committees, which was unheard of even a few years ago. Why? Because your companies 3-5 year strategic growth plan either lives or dies in their hands and you know it. Now all you have to do is approve their budget, which I estimate will be roughly 60-70 percent of your entire operational group request!


If you think approving that big budget gets you on the cutting edge you are WRONG!

If you really want to face the challenges of growing your web based businesses keep in mind a couple of recommendations:

Start to prepare and rebuild your organization. What does this mean?

• Technology handicapped Staff - Seriously consider getting rid of the circulation/ad sales staff that are technologically inept, and can’t think on their feet! If they are still trying to figure out what “user authentication, user registration” means, they can’t pitch your online business.

• Walk the floor – if you see your sales staff still using those yellow stickies to have their contact lists at their reach - you have a problem! If they have never heard of or do not know what CRM stands for, get rid of them! They will effectively do what you tell them (make more calls…) but can’t think creatively about your business none the less your customer. By the way, they hardly even talk to each other so a chance for cross-selling opportunities brewing is slim to none.

• Invest in reeducating your organization (especially sales and marketing) on simple MS tools: Outlook, MS Office, Excel, Word and Power Point. This investment goes a long way – think about it they can get organized with their tasks, contacts (at least have them in a central place) maybe even do presentations one day.

• Hire Web Savvy staff - that look outside the box “Traditional Print” -Especially your editorial and production team. If your editors don’t know what a blog is how will they ever understand their own readers?

• Start to invest in your infrastructure. The IT department is now a critical component of your growth and your strategic positioning. Your CTO should be living on the web!
  
  
  A CRM system will stream line your processes, keep your contacts, leads, opportunities centralized and your marketing efforts in tune with your sales efforts. Couple this with new interactive/digital sales and marketing methodology and you will capitalize on your investments, I promise you. But please be selective when you are selecting a CRM solution.
  
  
  Deploy SharePoint – for collaboration, workflow and task management. Get that critical matrix out in the hands of your business owners, executives and directors – real time!

• Same old approach doesn't work - How many times are you going to try same thing? Stop wasting time and money on print initiatives that don’t work. Keep your print product vibrant (regardless of what you hear, it's not going anywhere) leverage it to boost your interactive business but don't confuse the two.
  
  Most importantly, challenge your staff. Become innovators, if you aren’t one yourself, capitalize on your biggest asset; your most important intellectual property, your team! They are dieing to be heard.